tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37308592011-04-21T13:52:35.772-07:00Random rants, musings, and opinions. So what else is new?Tonionoreply@blogger.comBlogger1451100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-44272898061846255252008-05-08T13:23:00.001-07:002008-05-08T13:25:07.234-07:00

I've Moved!I've moved everything from this blog (including comments) to my own website mainly because I (a) want to "own" the stuff on it, some of which (I think) doesn't suck, and (b) I vastly prefer WordPress's UI. (And yes, I've got caching support so if one of my posts is ever popular there is a small chance it won't fall over.)

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-68674162325584064972008-05-01T14:49:00.000-07:002008-05-01T14:55:38.574-07:00

But Will They Get Out To Vote?Political commentary hidden inside GTA IV. It's crude, overlong, and only funny in parts.

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-4948931072576824022008-05-01T14:42:00.000-07:002008-05-01T14:47:53.913-07:00

Lenovo: We Don't Get ItSo here's an ad for the Lenovo X300. I'll wait here patiently while you watch it."No compromises." Except for industrial design, screen, keyboard, and operating system. It does have features you always need on an airplane -- like multiple USB ports and an optical drive. Oh wait, I use at most one USB device on my laptop except for at home (where I run it lid down with a Mac

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-26747756905156859342008-05-01T13:56:00.000-07:002008-05-01T13:58:12.479-07:00

The TravellersI loved this comic way back when. Sadly it's dated rather badly (too many references to movies we've happily forgotten, such as "Life Force"). I'm glad to see someone it's still around.

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-19597929829948579082008-05-01T10:23:00.001-07:002008-05-01T10:59:55.053-07:00

It's The Old Open Technology Trick, ChiefThe Open Screen Project is supported by technology leaders, including Adobe, ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics Inc., Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Verizon Wireless, and leading content providers, including BBC, MTV Networks, and NBC Universal, who want to deliver rich

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-81312838647406736012008-04-30T21:27:00.000-07:002008-04-30T23:34:36.142-07:00

The Design of Everyday Things"The Macintosh is the first computer interface worth criticizing." Alan Kay*Today, Apple has made usability all but a household world, and you probably don't need to fight major battles in software development projects to have some kind of iterative usability testing budgeted into a project. This hasn't been the case for very long.Shortly before the dot com bubble

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-12624584656982053782008-04-28T13:44:00.001-07:002008-04-28T15:39:36.645-07:00

Interstellar Navigation by Dead ReckoningAside: so much for YouTube. Lousy job of encoding and it lost my soundtrack. So I rustled up some quick code and voila.My favorite science fiction writer wrote a novel in 1967, give or take, called The Killing Machine in which the hero is attempting to locate a planet without precise coordinates, but has the assistance of a native of that planet who can

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-59059855584533485002008-04-27T22:01:00.000-07:002008-04-27T22:33:59.181-07:00

Breast Pumps are a RacketMy wife is using a Medela breast pump in her ongoing efforts to avoid raising our twins on formula. We actually bought a Medela breast pump before the twins were born, but the hospital gave us an even more up-market one as a "gift" so we ended up returning the one we bought.First of all let me say this. Breast pumps are a racket. You can buy a pretty robust device for

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-49296177569585791672008-04-24T13:04:00.000-07:002008-04-24T13:55:46.855-07:00

Wannabe Photoshop Killers, RevisitedPhotoshop Elements 6 for the Mac has shipped which means bad times for half-assed shareware products pretending to be cheap Photoshop replacements. It's not that Elements is itself a Photoshop replacement, it's just that it's more of one than the half-assed wannabes.If you've been keeping score, the candidates are Pixelmator, Acorn, Iris, and Photoline. I've

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-60521829613230481332008-04-17T09:32:00.001-07:002008-04-17T10:14:33.244-07:00

Brief Adventures in 3GDuring my recent hospital visit I found myself desperately in need of internet connectivity. The hospital provided wireless internet in the main "food court" area, which was a significant hike (the hospital covers multiple city blocks joined by 2nd to 6th floor crosswalks) from my wife's bedside, so I settled for daily email checks along with my morning coffee.But if

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-26199436436976595542008-04-14T14:07:00.000-07:002008-04-14T20:08:38.859-07:00

Favorite Music VideosWhile I'm reminiscing about music, here are some of my favorite video clips from the days when MTV actually showed music videos and some talent and thought went into rock videos.Subterranean Homesick Blues, Bob DylanBlind, Talking Heads* -- YouTube does not do this justice; the projected face effect is absolutely brilliant, and the drooling tool is a bit of statement, eh?Love

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-63322725821930931632008-04-14T11:56:00.001-07:002008-04-14T13:53:37.772-07:00

Favorite Cover VersionsI just thought I'd share some of my favorite ever cover versions of songs. A good cover brings something to a song that makes it seem completely new, and doesn't make you wish you were listening to a different version. In other words, it's not like almost every performance on American Idol.Bizarre Love Triangle, FrenteDon't Fence Me In, David ByrneQuinn the Eskimo, Manfred

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-85514065397948280942008-04-14T09:33:00.000-07:002008-04-14T15:44:40.411-07:00

Singing Babies to SleepWell I sang it once, I sang it twice, I'm gonna sing it three times more,gonna stay 'til your resistance is overcome.'Cause if I can't sing my boy to sleep, well it makes your famous daddylook so dumb.Hmm, he looks so dumb.From St. Judy's Comet, Paul SimonLeonard Cohen, 1969 (from Wikipedia)One song I always knew I would sing to my children, if I ever had any, was St.

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-71014665287366875052008-04-08T11:37:00.001-07:002008-04-08T12:09:50.139-07:00

Blender RevisitedBlender's built-in rendering engine is getting pretty decent. Here's a quick test render of frosted glass.Blender 2.5 is still under development. The main thrust of Blender 2.5 is user interface customization. If you've read my previous rants posts on the topic you'll know that I consider Blender's user interface to be, well, bad. Blender's UI is customizable, but not to the

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-7799918250532426412008-04-07T09:09:00.000-07:002008-04-08T12:21:30.685-07:00

I wish I loved SandvoxYou can use any font you like as long as it's the default or you're willing to painfully override it manually everywhere.My first cut of our twins website was done with Sandvox, but I quickly ran into the same problem I always run into with Sandvox, i.e.Most of its themes either suck or have obvious flaws (e.g. lame fonts)It's very fiddly to fix the simple flaws in a

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-34863392714641253742008-04-06T15:19:00.000-07:002008-04-06T17:00:33.518-07:00

Nikon DSLRs and Lenses, Computer Buying Rules of Thumb, and TwinsThere's a new web page on my site, which is very much under development. You can find it here. As I said, very much under development.I've recently purchased (retail! ugh!) a Nikon 18-200mm lens. This is unquestionably the most jaw-droppingly awesome (cropped-frame) DSLR lens ever, but I'd been putting off buying it because of my

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-19059393888022607622008-03-20T18:07:00.000-07:002008-03-20T18:26:13.033-07:00

LegoI loved lego as a kid, from when I first got some around the age of six until I went to college. I stopped buying new lego (it was very expensive then, and it's still expensive now) at around the age of ten. The "state of the art" of lego at that time was "electric lego" (when I visited Legoland in Lubeck in 1974 they were showing off the new 12v lego trains, but they weren't available for

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-5722398999608370272008-03-06T11:08:00.000-08:002008-03-06T11:13:27.935-08:00

iPhone SDK: Exceeding ExpectationsWell, after all the various rumors about iPhone development (e.g. no interface builder, limited initial functionality) we have the actual announcements:The iPhone development system is XCodeYou get an iPhone simulator that runs on your MacInterface Builder works fineGames with OpenGL and OpenAL work fineAnd you can sell your apps through iTunesAnd Apple will be

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-66417790278915381782008-03-04T14:35:00.000-08:002008-03-04T14:57:20.016-08:00

RIP Gary GygaxGary Gygax was, without doubt, one of the most influential game designers in history. He invented the role-playing game (with rules), as opposed to the role-playing game without rules, which has existed since before recorded history (heck, you can see kittens and puppies playing their version of "cowboys and indians").As with many absolutely groundbreaking pioneers Gygax's work was

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-15347299104679353112008-03-04T10:06:00.000-08:002008-03-04T10:14:38.172-08:00

Oops, Net Concensus Wrong AgainThe MacBook Air is topping the Apple Store's charts. (My wife is dead set on replacing her MacBook Pro with one.) How could we all have been so wrong? (Hey, I said it was going to appeal to the kind of people who buy Louis Vuitton handbags, but it seems to be doing better than that. Maybe I should have said Coach handbags...)Well, the Air makes the right compromises

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-37854851415324589262008-03-02T17:14:00.001-08:002008-03-02T17:42:38.075-08:00

A Little More Hedonic RegressionWhile it's very reasonable to be suspicious of changes to the way CPI is calculated based on the increasing utility of decreasingly expensive goods (i.e. "digital convergence") it's important to note that it really makes a lot of sense and is not without precedent.Imagine if you will that you're an economist measuring CPI using a "fixed basket of goods" at the

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-14830160700765145012008-03-02T16:33:00.000-08:002008-03-02T17:47:49.471-08:00

Hedonic RegressionAccording BEA deflators, $1,000 computers bought in 1990, 1995 and 2000 would cost $48.63, $95.84 and $526.58, respectively, today. I bought computers in each of those time frames and could not replicate any one of them for the suggested proportionate price in deflated dollars, regardless of free memory enhancement.From shadowstats.comThis very interesting website belongs to W.

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-20039729863354468982008-02-28T09:21:00.000-08:002008-03-02T01:02:09.054-08:00

Screencasting SoftwareI produce the occasional video tutorial, and the tool I've used for it up to now is the venerable SnapzPro X (from Ambrosia), which is more of a screen capture program with video capture added as a bit of an afterthought. There's been a flood of cheap(ish) and even free programs aimed at the video-capture and screencasting market, and I decided to try some out.One of the

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-9382324228697165162008-02-19T09:31:00.001-08:002008-02-19T09:35:17.317-08:00

Director 11After some doubts as to whether Director would ever see a new version, Adobe announced Director 11 (making it another non CS product, among other things). This is mainly a compatibility upgrade (new Flash functionality, support for Intel Macs, switch to Aegia physics from Havok, etc.) with the next version rumored to be a major upgrade.Good news for Director developers, and it's also

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-46742232156537020542008-02-17T21:42:00.000-08:002008-02-24T15:19:48.437-08:00

Hillary is starting to piss me offIt's important that one day we elect a woman president because I'd like my daughters to grow up in a country that has elected a woman to its highest office, but the fact that Hillary is a woman shouldn't blind us to her shortcomings as a candidate, and potential president:She's married to a former president, and electing her president smells of dynasty. What are

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-48229781896794611352008-02-16T14:35:00.000-08:002008-02-16T20:37:18.694-08:00

Modo 301Luxology are charging $25 for a 30 day trial of their flagship product Modo along with video tutorials. (This has apparently led to howls of annoyance, and a pledge to provide a free trial sometime soon, in a long, rambling, and quite annoying "modcast".) Apparently one of modo's too cool for school features is that the president of the company sends out periodic podcasts that are audio

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-12243657674166594702008-02-16T14:23:00.000-08:002008-02-16T14:34:40.074-08:00

MacBook Air (Again)No, I haven't changed my mind and bought one. But it's interesting to see from the various blogs and reviews starting to show up that my take on the Air was spot on. I.e. if you have the money and love having stylish stuff (and fly business class) the MacBook Air is enormously compelling, if you don't then not so much.I once travelled from Sydney to Brisbane on business (

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-74343982646062721622008-02-03T14:22:00.000-08:002008-02-03T14:50:52.880-08:00

gitOddly enough, while Time Machine was my favorite feature of Leopard before I installed it, I've not yet started using it, in large part because it doesn't quite do what I want, and requires me to get one or more hard disks that, in total, are bigger than all the hard disks I need to back up put together.Thanks to reddit, I came across git. Old news to some of you, no doubt, but ... wow. Where

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-26592304605899920812008-02-03T12:40:00.000-08:002008-02-03T12:44:15.337-08:00

Photoline RevisitedI've mentioned Photoline before as the first true Photoshop alternative I've come across, and I wrote a generally glowing review for MacApper a week or two back. I made a few critical remarks, mainly concerning cosmetic issues with Photoline's UI. Well, the developer seems to have read the review and tidied up all the dialogs and made some enhancements besides.Wow.

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-89064756084769420422008-02-03T10:19:00.000-08:002008-02-03T14:46:01.252-08:00

Microsoft and YahooIf you haven't seen it, you should read John Siracusa's take here (funny in large part because of the quotes). I seem to recall reading that Yahoo is hoping to be bought by Apple instead, but I'm sure Apple will have nothing to do with this.Since Jobs returned to Apple, he has been relentlessly focussed on turning Apple into a well defined set of individually profitable

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-12996930620850449612008-02-02T09:01:00.001-08:002008-02-02T09:16:56.912-08:00

More Random Thoughts on the MacBook AirThe more I read about the MacBook Air from folks who either (a) basically get free review models, or (b) haven't bought one or quite possibly seen one (note, I haven't seen one) the more annoyed I get.Either you buy one because you think it's worth the money (for whatever reason) or you don't.I have, in the past, been something of a "road warrior", but I

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-54186357412382396202008-01-17T10:16:00.000-08:002008-01-17T10:47:18.158-08:00

iTunes Movie Rentals: It's the Usability, StupidOne of the best things iTunes Store has going for it is usability, but the Movie Rentals section (which, basically, doesn't exist) is simply broken. The categories don't let you filter for rentable movies, so (as of writing) it's almost impossible to find movies to rent unless you just choose popular picks or new releases.Next, the iTunes Store

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-13525547840580551562008-01-16T09:02:00.000-08:002008-01-17T10:55:25.405-08:00

Why I hate Adobe. Expensive Upgrades & Software that Phones HomeI'm in a quandary. I have Adobe CS3 Web Premium through work, but I don't have my own license. I have Adobe Creative Suite (the original version) which comprised Photoshop 7, Illustrator 10, and InDesign 1, which were the first OS X native versions of each product, and I have After Effects 5 (for Windows).Assuming I can convince

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-11587790565932035152008-01-15T20:28:00.000-08:002008-01-17T11:03:58.838-08:00

Life Without Adobe: A Halfway Decent Photoshop ReplacementTurns out that all this time there's been a pretty sold Photoshop alternative in the shape of Photoline v14 (another piece of German shareware ... what is it with these German indie developers?). It's a cross-platform app and its UI seems a trifle clunky in spots, but it's very stable and its feature set is certainly in the ballpark (in

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-71281749780901905652008-01-15T09:21:00.001-08:002008-01-15T17:16:23.570-08:00

Evolution, not RevolutionSo, basically, we get a really nice ultralight notebook (with green construction and packaging) at a very reasonable price; AppleTV is cheaper and there's some content now (a lot of it, really), including HD; and there's an Airport with a hard disk built in to do wireless backups. And the iPhone SDK was mentioned ;-)Not earthshaking, but not bad.P.S.The really obvious

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-88679061887475263962008-01-15T07:11:00.000-08:002008-01-15T17:17:17.963-08:00

IrisNolobe (the latest incarnation of Stairways Software, best known for Interarchy, a.k.a. Anarchy, the excellent Mac FTP client) has just taken the wraps off Iris, its entry into the "cheap Core Image-based Photoshop wannabe" arena, where Acorn is currently standing with its foot on the chest of Pixelmator, gladius to its throat, waiting for the crowd to give a signal...You can get a copy of

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-56513430640132429172008-01-14T10:17:00.000-08:002008-01-14T10:35:03.758-08:00

Last minute Macworld speculationSomething in the air?Something no-one seems to have considered is the possibility that Apple will announce full support for Adobe's AIR on the iPhone (and possibly Mac OS X in general). This would make the Flash/ActionScript ecology an intrinsic part of Mac OS X, further cement Apple's disdain for Java, and (partially) solve the iPhone SDK issue. It would also

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-75709440353474826702008-01-13T14:55:00.001-08:002008-01-13T14:57:19.701-08:00

Quad Core iMacsGiven that Dell is currently selling quad core XPS desktops for $799, it would seem to be a no-brainer that Apple will put quad cores into at least the upper end iMacs, possibly the whole line, and possibly into a Mac mini variant.This will, unfortunately, close the gap between the iMac and Mac Pro product lines, which makes the introduction of a headless iMac with upgradeable

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-6914081821463275852008-01-08T14:38:00.001-08:002008-01-08T15:58:55.832-08:00

The Datastick. Again.Note: the datastick is a device I first encountered in Colorvision by Ron Cobb. While working on production design for Alien, Cobb assumed the crew of the Nostromo would carry around a device that was a combination flashlight, audio/video recorder, and computer. I incorporated such a device (along with standardized mass storage) into my science fiction setting. Reality has

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-54741902843906919722008-01-08T11:09:00.000-08:002008-01-08T11:51:13.259-08:00

The WireI used to pay for HBO but I found its scheduling infuriating and ended up never watching much on it (even The Sopranos despite it being, at the time, one of my favorite shows). So, I come to The Wire very late.My favorite books are either fiction with a lot of informative content, or non-fiction written in a great narrative style. So, some of my favorite books include Shelby Foote's The

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-60512568073921552252008-01-03T13:42:00.000-08:002008-01-03T14:02:28.606-08:00

Dumb Lawsuit of the week... er... day... Well, it's the US so who can tellInformation Week reports that Apple is being sued (again) for monopolistic practices such as (a) not playing WMA audio files on iPods even though the chips in the iPods support it (thus hurting competitors, one assumes) and (b) charging for more for a 4GB iPod than a 1GB given the difference in cost between the memory chips

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-70050614824284180202007-12-31T14:33:00.001-08:002007-12-31T14:59:37.378-08:00

The Future of DVDsThere's an interesting article on Seeking Alpha today about Apple and the future of the DVD player. Unfortunately, it is based on some extremely poor assumptions; in particular, they wrongly assert that it's cheaper to distribute physical DVDs, or HD-DVDs, than bits.Um... no. Not even close.It may be slower (downloading a 5GB DVD will take you a little over five and a half hours

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-53608101289755908092007-12-27T21:32:00.000-08:002007-12-28T09:56:51.098-08:00

It's the end of the (TV) world as we know it, and I feel fineFor ten years, I've been saying to friends and anyone else who is sufficiently immune to boredom that network TV was headed the way of commercial radio, and predicting it would be all over in five years. I was obviously at least five years ahead of myself. The proverbial fat lady hasn't sung, but I believe that the television writers'

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-48797149156230904672007-12-27T12:43:00.000-08:002007-12-27T14:56:47.559-08:00

Mortgage BrokersMost if not all of my tiny readership will be surprised to know that retail financial services are one of my pet peeves. I worked in the industry for a couple of years and have a pretty good idea of how it works, and my wife does research in the area of persuasion (like most of her colleagues and her mentor she comes at it from the angle of having been -- like most of us -- more

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-19409138120084349612007-12-21T15:46:00.000-08:002007-12-21T16:30:14.499-08:00

Is Leopard Apple's Vista?As I write this, I'm installing Leopard on my Mac Pro, having used it since release on my MacBook Pro, so you can take that as my firm "no" vote.Here's what's wrong with Leopard as far as I'm concerned:1) The translucent menu bar is a bit ugly. I think I'll use a command line hack to fix it.2) The dock with reflections (on the bottom of the screen) looks stupid. I've

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-56531674307715524212007-12-18T16:30:00.000-08:002007-12-18T16:38:18.755-08:00

The Echo ChamberZDNet has just posted and some website called Electronista has just blogged about and MacSurfer has therefore posted links to, a pile of horseshit about how, according to Secunia, Apple Mac OS X had 234 vulnerabilities reported in 2007 compared to some tiny number for Windows XP and Vista.I have absolutely no clue how they got these figures, possibly by googling Secunia for every

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-60020384974223580292007-12-09T19:45:00.000-08:002007-12-24T09:24:55.936-08:00

What's Wrong with the Kindle™?I'm late to the party commenting on the Kindle, and I don't own one and haven't touched one. The physical layout (e.g. easily mishit next page buttons) is dumb and the UI seems sluggish from videos. I have touched several Sony whatever-they're-calleds: none of them were working properly, but I could see the display well enough to not care for it that much.Here's my

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-35354461590871148342007-12-09T17:05:00.000-08:002007-12-09T17:12:50.245-08:00

NBC Universal and the iTunes Movie StoreThis little bit of information is probably obvious to some people, but it wasn't to me, and evidently has been missed by a lot of bloggers. Everyone who keeps track of Apple knows that NBC Universal pulled all of its video content from the iTunes Music Store. Depending on your various preconceptions, this is either a sign that Apple is doomed (of course) or

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-8353931711973683632007-11-30T06:37:00.000-08:002007-11-30T06:53:12.471-08:00

Just how stupid do you think potential iPhone customers are?A couple of days ago AT&T's CEO "spilled the beans" about Apple's plans to launch a 3G iPhone in 2008. Apparently, this is terrible for Apple because it will cause potential customers to hold off blowing $400 on an iPhone now and wait for the 3G model.It seems to me that most potential iPhone customers fall into one of two categories:

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-35941013768233229262007-11-20T12:49:00.000-08:002007-11-20T13:10:13.875-08:00

Unity 2.0Unity 2 has been out for a month or so now, and I've gotten my head around most of the additions (everything except multiplayer, basically). It's a bit of a mixed bag (I'll probably write a more thorough review for MacApper) but the nutshell version is this:The new UI support is at once great (in that it lets you do all the stuff you really need to do fairly easily) and disappointing (in

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-64479110274723561842007-11-20T12:26:00.000-08:002007-11-20T13:12:07.033-08:00

Crime & PunishmentMy wife and I have repeatedly received calls from someone claiming to be Countrywide Home Loans. These people, who give out the number 1-800-641-5302, are not Countrywide Home Loans (we called Countrywide to be sure, and then we googled the number, which is instructive and highly recommended).Annoyed by these people (who use a combination of professional sounding operators and

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-54939624938222557042007-10-30T14:42:00.000-07:002007-10-30T14:49:42.336-07:00

Apple's Aluminum KeyboardI got one of Apple's new keyboards because (1) it looks really nice (and goes with my Mac Pro in a way that the transparent white one did not) and (2) I wanted to decide what I thought of Apple's little micro-usability efforts (e.g. the fractional delay required to activate the capslock).So I love the keyboard but for some reason the function key equivalents aren't

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-38102502154063492372007-10-05T13:10:00.000-07:002007-10-05T13:11:38.135-07:00

Fitt's LawGreat article on Fitt's Law here.This is why Macs have a menu bar at the top of the screen rather than inside Windows.

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-19561400025866286802007-10-04T11:25:00.000-07:002007-10-04T12:05:11.162-07:00

World of Warcraft BRIEFLY RevisitedWell, I was really bored and I had some money sitting in my seldom-used PayPal account, so I renewed my old WoW account to see if I might enjoy bashing stuff for a short while. (Yes, I know, flirting with old addictions is very dangerous, but I lived.)When I quit WoW I predicted, somewhat bitterly, that Blizzard's various borderline insane decisions (e.g.

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-77910586986754157352007-09-27T06:12:00.001-07:002007-09-27T06:42:19.950-07:00

The Amazon Music Store: Usability & MotivesLike many people, I like Simon & Garfunkel. And like a sizable proportion of such people, I like Simon without Garfunkel. And finally, like a not-so-sizable proportion of such people, I don't mind Garfunkel without Simon. As it happens, I really like one of his most saccharine songs, "Sometimes When I'm Dreaming". I've been looking for it for some time -

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-28774373986143186222007-09-26T09:21:00.000-07:002007-09-26T09:59:21.253-07:00

Pixelmator: Another Core Image-based Bitmap EditorNote: This article was originally written for MacApper, but it looks like I've been beaten to the punch, and by John Siracusa no less!If you haven't been paying attention, Pixelmator is an attempt by two brothers to write a serious image editor based on Apple's Core Image functionality and sell it dirt cheap. There's been some talk of Pixelmator

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-61090218423153663282007-09-24T19:59:00.000-07:002007-09-24T20:07:56.929-07:00

Vista, The Gift That Keeps On %$#@ingSo, today, my copy of Vista Home Basic (retail, full price, etc. bought for me by our IT department to test our stuff on) demanded that I activate it. OK, annoying and alarming, but I'll bite. So I clicked the Activate button (or whatever it was) and held my breath. A few seconds pass, and then "Activation was Successful". OK, so a bit alarming, scary if I

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-32567007750677294492007-09-13T13:27:00.000-07:002007-09-13T13:40:43.948-07:00

Moveon.org: you are an embarrassment to us allDon't accuse people of being traitors for doing their jobs. Yes, you didn't use the word "traitor" or "treason" -- you used the word "betray". Oh yeah, and you made play of a guy's name.Moveon or Moron? Hahahaha so clever.Seriously, as a lifelong Democrat, I tell you guys to get a clue. You've just managed to completely miss the point.Instead of

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-18609759387657490332007-09-13T10:48:00.000-07:002007-09-13T11:08:44.379-07:00

Next Generation ComputersWe've by now all seen the new iPods, and of course the iPhone. I also saw an interesting post on Mac 360 to the effect that Macs are kind of boring, with no real changes (aside from better performance) aside from the introduction of the Mac mini in five years. Good point.The obvious next thing to fold into the laptop is cellular internet (3G, whatever). Having to stick a

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-46965976430438397042007-09-05T10:56:00.001-07:002007-09-05T11:12:48.047-07:00

iPhone, Thou Art Dead To MeApple has released the perfect iPhone ... i.e. an iPhone that isn't saddled with an AT&T plan and, um, doesn't make phone calls (...yet). At last, a browser perfect for reading books on the toilet.They've also added custom ringtones on steroids to the iPhone (you still can't just grab some arbitrary piece of audio and make it your ringtone because, um, well because) and

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-90140461306939863872007-09-05T10:50:00.001-07:002007-09-05T10:55:41.777-07:00

Numbers, RevisitedOK, here's my second opinion on iWork '08. It's incredibly good, just frustratingly imperfect.As I think I mentioned, I have two "killer documents" that I try to work with in every word processor and spreadsheet that comes along. The document is a complete set of role-playing rules, featuring complex table styles and cross-references.Pages comes so close to handling this well I

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-64590566731156652822007-08-19T10:56:00.000-07:002007-08-19T11:20:33.709-07:00

iWork '08 > I wish I liked itAs usual with Apple products, there are lots of reflexively pro- and anti- reviews. Most of the reviews focus on Pages, because Keynote is so obviously the best presentation program around that there's no point even discussing it, and the vast majority of people don't use spreadsheets for anything serious.I've got a few documents lying around that have been through

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-89890557472592922572007-08-14T16:39:00.000-07:002007-08-14T16:42:33.225-07:00

Windows vs. Mac Security. One of these operating systems has a destructive virus built inOh the irony. So here I am watching the last Steve Jobs keynote (the aluminum iMac introduction) on my Dell Windows Vista laptop (the one I use for testing the software I write, and incidentally use to surf the web when in bed) and Windows logs out on me without warning.Why? Well to update Windows of

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-81670545787898556582007-08-05T21:45:00.000-07:002007-08-05T22:04:57.650-07:00

iPhone, Nintendo DS Web Browser, CompatibilityI'm a sucker for weird web browsers, so I just had to go and buy the web browser for my DS. It uses both cartridge slots -- a memory module goes into the Gameboy Advance cartridge slot, and the browser itself goes into the smaller DS slot.This shows my flexible inVue test page running on the DS's browser (correctly!). Yes, I realise some of you, who

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-73839841248260175052007-08-02T12:18:00.000-07:002007-08-02T12:41:31.941-07:00

While I wait for a better iPhoneWell, I finally played with an iPhone (that's right, despite all my posts about it, I didn't queue to buy one, and didn't even visit an Apple Store to see one for weeks after the release). Mainly, I wanted to see if my video ad serving technology worked on one (it does, but since the iPhone only supports a limited range of video options, most of my test videos

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-31890322409213013652007-08-02T11:58:00.000-07:002007-08-02T12:18:22.701-07:00

The gPhoneGoogle is, apparently, working on its own phone. Google isn't exactly a stranger to the hardware world -- they do all kinds of hardware work internally (ranging from building their own infrastructure, to cargo containers that contain a decentralized server hub that can be shipped anywhere and plugged in, to immense, highly optimized server farms) and even sell some hardware products (

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-11269644658426567552007-06-29T09:00:00.000-07:002007-06-29T09:31:29.457-07:00

It's. The. Usability. Stupid.So you have room for nine icons (almost) on your main screen. Do you (a) use one for a "clock" rather than, say, display the time somewhere in your utterly useless status bar and menu bar? (b) use one icon for a "clock" and another for "date and time" (given you're already showing the date anyway)? (c) use a third icon for "calendar" because two just wasn't enough? or

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-26035252150389546222007-06-28T17:52:00.000-07:002007-06-28T18:05:20.987-07:00

It's a pocket-sized one of these...I just read one of the most intelligent articles I've come across in the last few months, and it wasn't in the New Yorker. I recommend you click the link and read it, but if you prefer an executive summary: the iPhone is a pocket-sized networked computer that replaces all the crap you currently need to carry around to do business (i.e. PDA, phone, laptop), is

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-70683378258807187402007-06-22T10:13:00.000-07:002007-06-29T08:59:54.882-07:00

Windows Vista the most secure Operating SystemDisclaimer: I use Vista for testing and casual web browsing and Mac OS X for web and software development. I use both nearly every day. I've had no security issues with either. That said, Vista's "allow or deny" behavior is probably about as annoying as spam or popups.Various sites (e.g. ZD-net and Engadget) are essentially regurgitating some

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-23832130167486709072007-06-12T21:41:00.000-07:002007-06-12T21:45:33.195-07:00

Safari for Windows, Mac, and probably iPhone found to have tons of security holesAs noted here and many other places, Safari turns out to be full of security flaws at least some of which are in the production (2.0.4) version as well as the 3.0 "beta" (it doesn't show beta in its About box).Safari on Windows is proving pretty buggy for me, it doesn't save preference changes among other things. (

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-43745986607396453962007-06-12T20:56:00.001-07:002007-06-12T20:58:34.259-07:00

Some nice information on Leopard's under-the-hood improvementsHardMac notes that Leopard has many improvements under the hood including UNIX-03 compliance, multicore optimization of network layers, automatic TCP optimization, and security features such as sandbox options for applications and notifications of an application having been altered since it was installed.

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-75420339535124152732007-06-12T13:37:00.001-07:002007-06-12T13:46:39.848-07:00

Strange OmissionsRumor has it that, at least initially, the iPhone will lack Flash support -- argh! (Even the Wii has Flash support.) Yes, that is disappointing, but it doesn't explain why Apple's email announcement to people, like me, who signed up for news on the iPhone's release doesn't mention web browsing.Oops.But the really sad omission is...It really looks like the iPhone SDK

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-9177984980428640662007-06-11T18:25:00.000-07:002007-06-11T18:42:50.436-07:00

Uh oh, AAPL is down $4In general, when Wall Street responds poorly to Apple announcements it's a sign either that Apple's announcements were lame OR that Wall Street doesn't understand the implications. Remember that the iPod announcement was received with yawns (including from me) and so was AppleTV. We'll see.Going back to my reaction to the announcements at WWDC 2006 (last year), it still

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-73295911398536860952007-06-11T17:15:00.000-07:002007-06-11T18:23:11.112-07:00

"Web Apps Are Not Applications" Rogue AmoebaSome developers aren't terribly pleased by Apple's announced option for those wishing to develop iPhone applications.The original post is simply sarcastic, but this response (strongly agreeing with the original post's sentiment) sums up the poster's point of view:Apparently if we want to develop for the iPhone, we have to be web developers, and develop

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-33245950704014716462007-06-11T11:19:00.001-07:002007-06-11T12:20:01.320-07:00

WWDC 2007 KeynoteWell the leak was completely inaccurate (and yes, the real keynote had hard numbers in it).The "and one more thing" item was Safari for Windows. Cute.As per my previous post, the SDK for iPhone is a web server. Duh.(Similarly, you can view Word documents in your iPhone via google documents, instant message via any one of a number of browser-based IM clients, etc. Isn't having a

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-82961432887704679002007-06-11T08:55:00.001-07:002007-06-11T09:17:09.240-07:00

Putting Metal where it belongsSo the rumor sites are abuzz, of course, on this the most important day of the Apple calendar year (at least in terms of interesting announcements). Steve's WWDC keynote (apparently leaked here) has generally contained far more substantive information than all the other major announcements of the year, and this year is -- I can safely say -- going to be no

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-32235976951411039142007-06-10T12:07:00.000-07:002007-06-10T12:29:06.019-07:00

My Wetware Problems with Apple ProductsI have to admit this -- I've been to Apple's genius bar twice with problems (once with an iPod, and once with a MacBook Pro), and both times the problem was instantly solved by the same thing -- I had to reboot.Dammit, why aren't Apple's products completely perfect? Aside from needing to be rebooted sometimes as often as twice a month for system patches, now

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-12500701529093715152007-06-06T16:24:00.000-07:002007-06-06T16:54:50.100-07:00

The Rest is Mere UsabilityI've just been reading this post about how some hacker has written a UNIX shell script that basically does what Time Machine does without the fancy UI. Of course, all Time Machine really does is make backups on a schedule ... right? So anything else it does is just Apple smoke and mirrors -- this stupid UI stuff that they do that confuses journalists and dumb rich people

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-60456119762978582232007-04-24T09:17:00.000-07:002007-04-24T11:49:25.180-07:00

If only it had market share, it would have Security VulnerabilitiesThe revelation that the security flaw exploited to win a hacking competition last week was related to Java applets that used QuickTime is very interesting because of the usual argument that Macs are only seen as less vulnerable because they have a smaller installed base. Well QuickTime doesn't have a "smaller installed base". Its

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-15084694215446375082007-04-19T18:42:00.000-07:002007-04-19T18:49:16.435-07:00

Apparently, the "wow" has been delayed until OctoberWell, I can predict one of the surprises that will be in Leopard based on this patent filing and a bunch of similar, related patents.Apple is going to offer procedural desktop pictures (essentually GPU pixel shader programs) that produce pretty animated abstract or image-processed desktop pictures. These will be gorgeous, stylish, and have the

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-52720520958707893222007-04-11T15:16:00.000-07:002007-04-11T15:23:22.554-07:00

The Zeroth Law of UsabilityOf course by trying to keep my list short, I either left out a things (we'll get to the most important item in a sec) or left a bunch of stuff as a corollary.0. Function As IntendedThere's no point being usable if you aren't useful. This should be obvious but it needs to be said. Blender obeys the zeroth law (in spades!), and it's free and open source, making it sad

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-31257537572592842402007-04-11T08:09:00.000-07:002007-04-12T09:10:18.190-07:00

And for my next trick... let's beat Blender over the headBlogs are kind of like Usenet where you get to avoid the flamewar. I tried posting on Blender's forums about its atrocious UI and quickly gave up since the responses were idiotic, hostile, or despairingly sympathetic. You get the picture.Having come up with my 11 simple rules of usability, I can now beat Blender over the head in my own

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-19520599054318583042007-04-10T14:46:00.000-07:002007-04-10T15:03:54.276-07:00

Usability Could Use Some Usable HeuristicsI'd imagine that the world's worst presentations are given by the developers of presentation software. (I certainly sat through a staggeringly poor presentation by SGI folks during SGI's heyday.)I can't find a good set of usability heuristics to beat crappy software over the head with (you must fix Blender because Tog says so), so I thought I'd write my

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-4170540328801602372007-04-10T13:22:00.000-07:002007-04-10T21:22:40.297-07:00

Please Buy Cheetah3dUsability and 3d software, from the expensive to the free to the cheap.Among my various half-assed skills, I can model, texture, and light 3d graphics (or "cg" as it's now referred to by the cognoscenti). I have a bunch of examples here, but I've put one up here (it was my design for QuickMP3's icon) to brighten up my blog with a picture for a change.Anyway, I've used a lot of

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-81570703855160028192007-03-23T15:42:00.000-07:002007-03-23T15:53:12.636-07:00

Why do Science Fiction Movies Suck?Slashdot (which I still occasionally visit) pointed my at an interesting article on MSN (which I never visit unprompted) about why SF has such a poor image and why serious writers and film makers baulk at being classified as science fiction (or, worse, "sci fi").Two word summary: George Lucas.Bladerunner is almost the exception that proves the rule.It's a good

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-59785261036989885822007-03-22T06:37:00.000-07:002007-03-22T06:59:00.386-07:00

Copland, RevisitedVista is turning out to be Microsoft's Copland (rather than its System 8). The thing is that Apple was smart enough not to ship Copland.Copland was Apple's much vaunted successor to Mac OS that had all this revolutionary stuff under the hood but which didn't actually (a) work or (b) run legacy software. After many delays it was axed.After Jobs returned to Apple, System 7.6 was

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-20461932815967777502007-03-21T14:27:00.000-07:002007-03-21T14:58:54.601-07:00

How To Fix Your Current Memory Related Problems *So I had a Blue Screen of Death (yes they still exist) after, apparently, a memory parity error occurred. (Not Microsoft's fault -- I guess.) This led to my spending 45 minutes on the phone with Dell "gold" tech support.My memory parity issue may or may not be solved (depending on whether reseating a DIMM helped) but I was told the magic order in

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-5086573339646613982007-03-21T08:40:00.000-07:002007-03-21T09:31:53.494-07:00

Vista, ContinuedToday, I discovered that FireFox 2.0.0.3 doesn't have Flash installed. So I attempted (unsuccessfully) to install it. Automatic installation failed (FireFox's fault). Manual installation failed (Adobe's fault?). Note that Internet Explorer (rendered unusable by requiring me to type URLs with a leading http://) is running Flash just fine. I thought FireFox was too.Anyway, so I quit

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-14191742007297289692007-03-21T07:38:00.000-07:002007-03-21T07:49:01.665-07:00

Oops, I predicted the iPhoneI've been going over some of my old blog posts (removing embarrassing typos, failing to remove others) and discovered I had accidentally predicted the iPhone in July 2006 (note that Apple had probably been building the iPhone for a couple of years or more at that point, there were plenty of rumors/patents of touch screen technology, and it was part of my ongoing "

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-66688724295661633842007-03-20T13:47:00.000-07:002007-03-21T06:44:25.277-07:00

'Wow!' Microsoft has learned nothing about usability in twelve yearsIronically, this is the second time I'm writing this entry. The first attempt to write it involved using IE7 on my new Vista laptop. IE7 helpfully crashed on me losing everything I had written, so here goes attempt numero deux, this time using FireFox on Vista. (I also just downloaded Picasa using FireFox, since it was clicking

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-23233087977329343132007-03-08T08:10:00.000-08:002007-03-08T09:25:51.855-08:00

A Brief History of Bloody-Mindedness & Game DesignOnce upon a time, someone invented computer games. Whether it's chess, or pong, or asteroids, or whatever you want to pick as your first computer game (but not space war) the one thing all the original computer games (but not space war) had in common was that you played against the computer. In order to keep the game interesting for stronger

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-86862692574234693402007-03-03T21:09:00.000-08:002007-03-03T22:03:00.820-08:00

Farewell World of WarcraftAs you probably gathered from my earlier post (if you read it), I have become increasingly disillusioned with WoW after the release of Burning Crusade, and my wife and I have decided to quit the game cold turkey. I mailed my valuables to friends in game and we've uninstalled. Buh-bye.As with all MMORPGs, WoW's chief addictive quality is personal relationships. While the

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-17552992803574025182007-02-17T07:10:00.000-08:002007-02-17T07:26:01.190-08:00

Telstra Tells Apple To "Stick To Your Knitting"As well as teaching me a new colorful Australian expression I hadn't previously encountered (note: I'm an Australian living in the USA, perhaps knitting has taken on greater cultural significance in the five years I've been living in the US) this has given me another reason to hate Telstra (known in Australia as "a bunch of wankers|tools|drongos|

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-44530995510055983592007-02-13T08:19:00.000-08:002007-02-06T20:37:18.075-08:00

Blizzard Want Ads: A Game Designer With A New IdeaSo I got to 70 in Burning Crusade about two weeks after it shipped. At first it seemed like leveling up was going to be fun, because of all the new content. But then it turned into a grind, because of all the "new" content.Executive SummaryLandscape Artists: 10/10 (great job, as usual)Creature Artists: 7/10 (nice job, but a little lacking in

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-1162929183686202712006-11-07T11:15:00.000-08:002006-11-07T12:07:14.010-08:00

Lost and Ballistic Trajectories Over Marine CarnivoresAs I think I may have mentioned, my wife and I are addicted to Lost. We TiVo it, and on the fairly rare, but not rare enough, cases when TiVo screws up, we download it from iTunes. We're not ultra-devoted quasi-insane-stalker fans of the show, we don't own it on DVD, and we haven't watched every episode more than once. We don't take notes.At

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-1161102279008606612006-10-17T09:22:00.000-07:002006-10-17T09:34:26.740-07:00

One of the great cartoons just gets better with time...By Michael Leunig, from the National Library of Australia.

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-1158681421507474882006-09-19T08:33:00.000-07:002006-09-19T13:40:44.126-07:00

Gun Control & Democracy"Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains." Winston ChurchillI'm not sure if I qualify as "old" by Winston's definition ... or liberal. I don't know if Winston Churchill would consider the current Republican mainstream to be "conservative" or just nutty. But, I have slowly been

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-1158510317449189522006-09-17T09:14:00.000-07:002006-11-05T18:58:59.260-08:00

Eve OnlineEve's been around for a while, but I've been doing something else (i.e. playing World of Warcraft) so I didn't try it. I generally prefer "science fiction" flavored stuff over fantasy, but MMOs are in large part about sunken cost.Eve Online is essentially multiplayer Elite (or, if you're a Mac gamer, multiplayer Escape Velocity in 3D; if you're under 30 it's multiplayer Privateer), only

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-1158008876696533462006-09-11T13:22:00.000-07:002006-09-11T16:28:08.856-07:00

Fond Memories of Sesame StreetThere are so many clips from Sesame Street that I loved way back when. It's a shame the show was refocused on younger children.Bumble Ardy's Birthday Number Nine:I guess a story featuring underage drinking and a mother threatening pigs with vivisection wouldn't be considered politically correct these days.Here's "The King of Eight":The alligator king and his seven

Tonionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3730859.post-1157508911133206962006-09-05T18:47:00.000-07:002006-09-05T19:15:16.006-07:00

Of course, it's just a rumorI've not been reading much tech news lately... too busy actually doing work (for a change!) So it was with some satisfaction that I read reader reports on Macintouch of using Crossover Beta for Mac OS X.Crossover is a commercial version of WINE (WINE Is Not an Emulator), which is a library which provides a Win32 compatibility layer for various UNIX/Linux flavors,

Tonionoreply@blogger.com